Chapter Text
If the rest of today hadn’t left you completely numb and frozen in shock, the old wooden door being broken open surely would have made you jump, and maybe even scream. Instead you stood in the locked wardrobe you’d been stuffed in, hugging yourself out of fear as silent tears streamed down your cheeks.
You clenched your eyes shut as the sound of multiple gunshots rang through the old Spanish house. You knew your father would use the government’s countless resources and power of being the president to his advantage, and send his best to find you and bring you home safely. You just didn’t think the villagers that held you here would be able to take them down so easily with the old fashioned weapons they had.
When the groans sounded more like that of your captors than that of heroes, you finally opened your eyes, and stepped delicately towards the wardrobe doors to look through a hole in the wood that let you see into the kitchen.
Standing tall over countless bodies with the smoking end of a pistol pointed into the air was a man you’d never seen before. He wore what seemed to be a brown jacket with a large fluffed collar, and black pants with many straps, pouches, and pockets. His chest protruded in and out as he caught his breath and clenched his jaw, a stern look worn in his eyes like he’d already dealt with enough bullshit for one day.
Finally after one last breath, he announced to the room: “I'm looking for the president’s daughter!” He lowered his weapon and looked around the room. Still frozen in fear, you could do no more than watch as he started to walk around the room, opening cabinets and pocketing countless rounds of ammunition as well as what looked to be a red plant. You couldn’t imagine why he may have needed that.
“Is there anyone here?” He yelled again, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head as he put both of his palms onto the dining room table and let his weight relax onto it. The absence of your presence was clearly a failure to him, and you figured it was likely because he’d followed a lead to this exact location and was hoping you would be here. When he thought you weren’t and he’d exhausted all of the time he was willing to spend in this building, he turned to leave.
Like you’d been hypnotized and he finally figured out that walking through this building’s doorway was exactly what you needed to snap out of it, your voice let itself find its way back into your throat.
“Help!” Was all you could say with a sharp sob following it. Knowing no one would hear you besides this man who appeared to be friendly, you finally let the emotions you’d been holding since being taken out as you started to cry.
“I'm here!” He said as he rushed to the wardrobe you stood in and immediately started fiddling with the lock. “Shit…” He mumbled when he realized it required a key.
“Please help me.” Was all you could utter, exhausted from the trauma and fear, needing out of this box as soon as possible.
“I will, don’t worry. Take a deep breath.” He released the lock from his grip and placed his palms gently on the wardrobe doors like you could feel his touch through them. His new mission was keeping you calm. You still sobbed wildly and you heard him exhale.
“My name is Leon Kennedy. I've been personally sent by your father to bring you home safely, and that is my only intention. I need you to take a breath for me, miss. We will get you home, but I'm going to need a bit of your help.”
As instructed you forced yourself to take a breath and nearly choked on the freedom that was so close but so far away that you found yourself sucking in.
“That's it.” He said, and you could tell by the sound in his voice that he was smiling. He didn’t speak again until your breath was fully caught, and your sobs had stopped. “Now I need you to think. Did you see where they put the key for this lock after they put you in here?”
You shook your head as blurs of the last few hours hit your conscious at once. Being taken, a long bumpy car ride, being tied up and laughed at, murmurs of a cult, getting to the village, being carried into this house and set in a wardrobe, the doors closing, a lock clicking. You felt tears well up in your eyes again as you couldn’t recall, until you replayed the faces of the few villagers you’d seen in your mind. Women with long dresses and scarves tied over their long hair, men with beards, crooked smiles…and finally, a man with a bag over his head, a chainsaw, and a key on a string around his neck.
“A large man…” You started to mumble, and you could tell Leon was listening. “But his face is covered, all you can see are his eyes. And he’s got a…” You started.
“Chainsaw.” Leon finished as you heard the familiar rumbles of a small gas motor just a few feet away. “Get back!” He yelled as he efficiently put his pistol into its holster on his hip, and rolled his shoulders to move the shotgun from his back and into his hands. He pumped a bullet in its chamber, and took a shot at the man with the chainsaw. The man groaned for just a moment, but wasn’t going down that easily.
He paused for just a moment, raised his saw in the air before laughing, and charged right at your hero. Leon tried to ready his weapon once more, but wouldn’t be prepared in time and had to resort to side stepping out of the way as his saw slammed down into a counter where Leon once stood, and easily sliced through its surface.
You stood close to the hole in the wardrobe to see what was happening, your freedom once chainsaw-slice away from being taken. “Go, Leon!” You uttered under your breath.
Leon readied and threw a flashbang that knocked you back away from the hole in the door, and left your ears ringing. You stood pressed against the back wall of the wardrobe, and could only make out the sound of countless shots from his shotgun being dealt once the effects of the flashbang started to wear off and your senses were back to normal.
You got to the peephole just in time to witness the final shot needed to take down the man with the chainsaw. Without hesitation Leon rolled his shoulders again, flipping the large gun onto his back, and getting onto his knees to take a small bag of Pesetas from the man’s back pocket, and rolling him over to check his neck for the key.
“Got it.” Leon said in your direction as he removed a knife from a holster near his shoulder to cut the string from his neck, and get the key that would finally set you free. He got to his feet and you heard fiddling with the wardrobe’s lock that once brought you so much fear, and made the space you stood in feel much smaller.
The wardrobe doors creaked as they opened, and the sight of your hero’s face made your survival instincts want to take a break and give the responsibility to someone else, even if just for a few moments. You collapsed instantly and without hesitation Leon let you fall onto him.
“Woah,” he said as he caught you. Your face rested perfectly on his chest as he put one of his hands on the back of your head to keep you pressed against him, his other arm wrapping itself around your body. The two of you stood like this for a few more moments before he broke the silence. “Can you walk?” He asked, clearly noticing how exhausted and weak you were.
“I think so…” You said as you stood up straight and took a step back to create a distance between the two of you, but your body found itself too spent. Just one step was enough to make your balance falter, and Leon put his arms out to catch you again before you caught yourself and let a small chuckle escape your lips. “Maybe not so well…” You admitted.
He glanced around the room like he was looking for something before he gave a slight nod. “In that case;” He alluded before picking you up bridal-style.
“Leon!” You said out of shock, though you weren’t opposed. He made you feel like you weighed nothing at all, his arms firm under your body as his breathing pattern stayed the same like he didn’t even notice he was carrying you.
“Just hang on.” He reassured, and there was nothing else you could do.
…
“Alright.” Leon said after he’d carried you into a different building and down a flight of stairs that led to what looked like a tunnel. It’s length was dark and you had no idea what lay just a few feet beyond what the purple torches allowed you to see.
Leon set you down gently on blankets on the ground that lay next to a rickety old table, countless trinkets, and a man that wore a long hooded cloak. He stayed knelt next to you after setting you down for just a few moments to give reassurance.
“I have been in contact with our homebase, they are sending a helicopter to pick us up but we’ll need to wait.” Leon said. You glanced between him and the mysterious man multiple times before he finally caught onto your hesitation to fully relax. “This is the merchant. He’s been helping me since I got here, he can be trusted.”
The merchant looked back at you this time and gave a wave before you looked back at Leon, and felt your posture relax. The relief was only momentarily however as the sudden lack of sun and cold off the tunnel’s stone walls got to you, and sent near electric chills down your spine.
“There are a few things I need to do around the village before we leave.” Leon said as he slipped his left arm then his right out of his jacket, and swiftly placed it over you and motioned for you to lay back onto the blankets. “I'm going to give you this vial of herbs, they are going to help you regain your strength, but I want you to rest as well. You’re safe here, but I don’t know what lies ahead for us in this village. But for now…Just rest.” He handed you a vial with three different colored powders mixed in it, and stood to leave.
You wanted him to stay by your side. You wanted his arms around you again. You wanted to finally be home, and safe. But your body was too tired and unable to utter any of these requests, so you resorted to the best thing you could do in this moment; settling into your hero’s jacket, his scent still thick on the collar, and letting its warmth lull you to sleep.